HARRISBURG -- When a veteran baseball pitcher goes down with an injury, the manager puts him on the disabled list and calls in a reliever from the bullpen.

The same thing goes in the game of journalism. Longtime Post-Gazette transportation writer and Sunday columnist Joe Grata has broken his leg and is on the disabled list for a few weeks, so the editor is giving the minor-leaguer from Harrisburg a tryout.

This column will outline the likelihood of whether your state legislators will go along with Gov. Ed Rendell's call to provide an additional $760 million for mass transit by July 1, the start of the new fiscal year.

Here's the punch line, right up front. There are two chances -- very slim and none -- that the Port Authority of Allegheny County, Philadelphia's SEPTA and dozens of smaller transit systems will see significant additional aid before July 1.

Of course, there's a chance that Mr. Rendell won't sign a new state budget by June 30 if it doesn't include more money for transit. He'd like to get the issue settled before legislators leave for their summer break, but some Republicans say the transportation dilemma may have to wait until fall.

But if the governor won't ink a budget deal, he could keep them in Harrisburg, which can really simmer in the summer.

The state now provides about $825 million a year for mass transit. Legislators from rural and small-town areas, where few people use buses or trolleys, say that's a lot of subsidy already. They note that the state doesn't subsidize the rising cost of gasoline, which their constituents use to get to work.

Mr. Rendell, former mayor of Philadelphia, is more attuned to the needs of transit-dependent urbanites. He wants the Legislature to slap a 6.17 percent tax on oil company profits, which he says would generate an additional $760 million for transit in fiscal 2007-08. Mr. Rendell, a Democrat, is frequently at odds with small-town Republicans, and mass transit is a huge point of dispute.

June is already one-third over, and almost no legislators have embraced the proposed oil company tax. Republicans say it will just be passed on to motorists as higher gasoline prices, and then angry motorists will oust incumbent legislators in next year's elections. Mr. Rendell doesn't have to worry about re-election; he's in his final term.

Another major hang-up is that transit funding cannot be viewed in a vacuum. Legislative leaders say it's inextricably linked with another major transportation problem -- how to generate an additional $965 million annually to fix roads and bridges.

Mr. Rendell wants to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike to raise road/bridge money, but Republicans, especially in the Senate, are opposed. The powerful Turnpike Commission is also waging a fight to stay in existence and extend its empire to a tolled I-80. Without a solution to road/bridge funding, there almost certainly won't be new revenue for transit.

Republicans are insisting that transit agencies -- SEPTA in particular -- get more "efficient'' in their operations, meaning trim workers and lesser-used routes -- before more state money is approved. GOP critics also would like to see riders pay more at both the Port Authority and SEPTA, noting that neither agency has raised fares for several years. They want transit agencies and their riders to "share the pain'' and not just look to Harrisburg for a bailout, as they have in the past.

I talked to Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato after he visited Harrisburg last week. "We're sharing the pain," he insisted, pointing to numerous bus routes to be cut this month, followed by more than 200 layoffs July 1, with additional route cuts set for September if state aid isn't approved, followed by fare hikes in January. But so far SEPTA hasn't trimmed routes or raised fares, irking Republicans.

Mr. Onorato and Port Authority boss Steve Bland have spent a lot of time here lately, talking with the governor and legislators, but so far haven't secured any promises of additional aid.

Rendell spokesman Chuck Ardo agreed that transit agencies should run as efficiently as possible but added, "That does not in any way alter the need for the Legislature to find a reliable source of mass transit funding.''